If you’re a Chinese resident with a knack for predicting the weather, you might be best off keeping those skills to yourself.

A new regulation from the Chinese Meteorological Administration bans amateurs and enthusiasts from publicizing their own weather reports, saying that only official authorities are allowed to offer such forecasts.

The regulation, which goes into effect Friday, covers any weather predictions involving "clouds, wind direction, wind speed, air temperature, humidity levels" as well as visibility and more. Those who distribute false or manipulated weather information and “create a negative impact on society” with such reports are liable to be fined as much as 50,000 yuan (around $8,000).

Amateur weather nerds span history and the globe, from Thomas Jefferson’s meticulous catalogues of the temperature and precipitation at Monticello to the many modern-day hobbyists at the U.K.'s Royal Meteorological Society. Weather obsessives in the U.S. were fiercely upset, for example, when in 2012 the consumer-facing Weather Channel announced plans to buy the Weather Underground, a beloved crowd-sourced platform built by weather-loving amateurs.

Shanghai-based recreational meteorologist Ni Shun, who shares his predictions on various social media platforms, said he thought the regulation was aimed at hobbyists with a hunger for fame who exaggerate forecasts to terrify people. “For example, saying that a level-six typhoon is coming, which easily makes people get scared,” he said.

The state-run tabloid Global Times said that false information suggesting a super typhoon would hit Fujian province went viral earlier this year in the run-up to the country’s tomb-sweeping holiday, leading some residents to needlessly jettison their travel plans.

The 25-year-old Mr. Ni, who first seriously began cultivating his love of weather prediction in high school and is a member of a local amateur meteorology group, said he thought the regulation was reasonable and wasn’t likely to affect regular hobbyists.

“People like us mostly take the meteorological observatory as our standard, and then add on some of our own predictions. I think this sort of thing wouldn’t be problematic,” said Mr. Ni, who works in the telecommunications industry.

In China, where tight press controls lead to a vibrant market in rumors, fake weather predictions aren’t the only hoax that can spark a panic. After Japan’s Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant was damaged by a tsunami in 2011, an online prankster’s claims that radiation had contaminated salt supplies in the seas off China’s coast caused mass hording of salt in multiple cities.